Darkroom Shed: a Murphy Desk
Occasionally I will need some desk space for work in the darkroom. A place to cut and mount photos for instance. I can also bring a laptop. Because space remains a premium I thought I could try and make a folding ‘Murphy’ desktop.
I used some birch finish plywood, I bought two sheets of two foot by four foot by one half inch thick.. One piece would be the desk top and the rest the fittings and support. I trimmed the work with half inch thick strips of pine I ripped from the leftover tongue and groove ceiling boards.
The main support is a double one inch thick glued three inch wide by four foot long board. Under this would be the fold out ‘gate-leg’ style supports. This would constitute half of the total one inch thickness of this top board.
The supports are triangles of plywood that fold out on hinges and then fold flat against the wall when it has been put away.
The desktop is then attached to the support board using hinges again.
Certainly, this is not fine furniture but it is very functional.
